I use Opera!

Hosting problems!

Last few days I am again having problems with my hosting provider. After I changed Fly High to Cats Nine reseller I was very satisfied for almost 6 months and then troubles are starting. Server Eli which is located in London Blue Square constantly has issues, first connectivity, then usage and finally firewall. I can’t say anything against the Cats Nine since their support was always quick and they always responded fast, but it’s almost 20 days and they can’t solve the issue. What is more ironic my old hosting where I have few sites is currently passing 383 days of uptime. I don’t remember when I needed to contact them, but I don’t want to put more sites there since I don’t like to have all eggs in one casket.

While I still don’t think to leave Cats Nine I started investigating another hosting options, especially VPS packages, but it looks my budget is still small for the mentioned managed service.

According to the Web Hosting Reviews and threads on WHT it looks Blue Host would be nice solution even it is not full reseller. But then problem is that I need WHM, even I don’t sell hosting, I have few clients who want their independent cPanels. Other option is well known Host Gator another big name. So as Blue Host they offer everything unlimited which is IMHO impossible. Sooner or later you will cross some invisible line which will lead to an account suspension.

Anyway, now let’s go back to the further research. I would appreciate some good hosting suggestions from your personal opinions. Reseller is not a condition, but mostly reliable hosting with 99.9 uptime and where I can put at least 50 small sites, every up to 1000 UV daily. Not more then 5 GB of space. Good support, which know what they are doing is a must have.

Posted in Webmastering — Hellas @ 5:23 pm @ January 11, 2010

Use a Web Design Company to Help You with Planning Content

Unless you are a professional web designer, you will probably want to utilize the benefits provided by a web design company in order to establish your online presence. This type of service knows all of the steps required to effectively get your site designed to standard as well as the best way to get your message out. The initial cost of hiring a design service might seem a little steep at first but you will realize savings in the long run when your website brings you optimal traffic that promotes your message and converts to product sales.

Decide the purpose of your website before you proceed with any other planning. A website with the purpose of informing will have a very different design than one that only has the purpose of selling products. Or, it may be a combination of these two main purposes.

Your web design should be accessible from any type of browser. Remember that nowadays web pages are not only presented on a traditional browser but also on mobile devices. You also need to consider those with disabilities like hearing and vision impairment. For example, there are web browsers that can synthesize text into voice and the good web designer knows things like providing alternate text for images because graphics are non-detectable for users with disabilities.

Content is very important and part of the planning as well. If part of the purpose of your website is to inform, you want to make sure that content is written well and helpful to your visitors. Maybe you as the client want to write the content yourself or you have access to skilled content writers. This needs to be identified up front in the planning. You also must consider that content changes frequently and facilities (such as a blog or content management system) should be implemented as part of the plan. You want to have the flexibility to update content without needing to consult your service company each time. And with the help of a good web design company, you should be able to prepare the content for them the way that’s ideal for users and search engines.

Posted in Webmastering — Hellas @ 1:37 pm @